Skip this section if you must,
but know this: I would never have undertaken this
huge project, except that it would have been such a crime, so selfish,
not to share this very enjoyable story with other fans! My desire to allow
you to enjoy "Death's Domain" overcame my natural sloth.
Any typos are purely my own, and I
apologize in advance for them. Paty wrote all 137 pages on a
typewriter, amazingly, and managed very well, but my hands are not so
well trained, alas, even with the aid of a word processor. I
caught (and executed) as many errors as I could find.

I
have never actually met Paty. My husband had corresponded via
email with her husband, well-known comic artist Dave Cockrum, regarding
their mutual interest in the Blackhawk comics and planes. Dave had
also been an artist on the X-Men comics back when it was great; Dan (my
spouse) mentioned to him that I was a fan. From there we began to
discover a number of common interests, and when I heard that Dave's wife
Paty had written a Doc Savage novel (which had been considered for
publication by Bantam, no less!), to say I was enthusiastic would be
putting it mildly! A new Doc story! Holy Cow!

But there had only been two copies of
the novel, and both appeared to be lost. Fortunately, Paty is a
woman of determination, and while I was still mourning this loss, she
regained one of the (typed) copies. Being of kind and generous
spirit, she made a copy of it and mailed it to me! (Insert lots of
enthusiastic jumping up and down here. ;-) I asked her
permission to share it and the artwork with all of the Doc fans.

I found her writing to be quite true
to the original pulp style, and the characters rang true.
Paty obviously knows her Doc! Now, this story has a somewhat different angle than those we've read before...but that's the
point. This is a previously unknown, more personal chapter in
Doc's life. (See the "Foreword".) It has action
and humor, along with many traditional 'Doc' elements and a
rather high body count (not Doc's doing, of course), plus something
more. I loved it, and hope you will too!

Now, Dave Cockrum is not the only
artist in their family. Paty had drawn (and copied for me) several
cover concepts that she had done for this novel. Not only that,
she drew Doc's face on the envelope she mailed them to me in, and
colored his eyes in with flake-gold ink! What fun it was to get
that! We heard from Dave that this wasn't unusual; Paty has apparently
often added her artwork to envelopes she sent out. (Recently her
artwork has been severely restricted for medical reasons, so please be
considerate if you email her.)

Who else has gotten artwork by Paty?
Well, you may have heard of one lady - a talented author by the name of
Laurell Hamilton, who does the "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter"
series. (Even if you're not 'into' vampires - I wasn't at all - at
least try the first one, "Guilty Pleasures". You will
enjoy the ride! Anita Blake is tough but fun, the stories are
dramatic and intense in places, the universe is interesting (vampires
not only exist, they have legal rights), and the feminine touches of
humor in the stories slay me...no pun intended.) It seems that
Paty is also a fan of these stories, and wrote to Ms. Hamilton,
embellishing her letter with artwork of the sexy vampire
Jean-Claude. More than one of the books since then have been at
least partly dedicated to Paty's inspiring drawings!

Finally, don't miss the true tale of
the day Paty actually saw Doc Savage in New York City! Paty
Sees Doc Savage